The Bible's first command
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2844-the-bible-s-first-command
Claim: Many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion, and Christianity.
Reply: Not anyone that has claimed to be a Christian, is one. There is no better moral guide than the Bible. The Old Testament and Christ told us to love God and to love our neighbor.
Matthew 22:39
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
That informs us in one sentence of how we ought to live. If someone can propose a better/higher moral standard, which, if followed, would provide better good for humans to live together in society, I would like to hear it.
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:24)
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:1-2)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commands there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:9)
Deuteronomy 6.5
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Leviticus 19.18
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.
It is evident that if humanity would follow these commands, we would live in a better world.
The Bible contains the highest information/semantic content in world literature.
Genesis 1.1:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
That informs us in one short sentence of our origins.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
That informs us in one sentence of how we can be saved and receive eternal life.
Matthew 22:39
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
That informs us in one sentence of how we ought to live.
Now let us suppose that you would KNOW with absolute certainty that the whole Bible is a made-up story by some genius guy and that ontologically speaking, there is no God, but the material world is all there is and brought forward life and humans. Not only that, but you had the BEST arguments to back that up.
It would still be more reasonable to defend the Biblical worldview because it shapes humanity to the better. In contrast, without a creator, there can be no enforcing agency of moral good, and man basically could give a free go to his own inclinations, without fear of consequences besides eventually the direct consequences of his actions.
The only manifestation of atheism in state power is totalitarianism. No exceptions. For two centuries-- from 1789-- every atheist philosophy that has risen to power has brought hell to earth among the people under its boot. Atheist 'secular humanism' has one salient characteristic-- it never survives the rise of atheism. What begins with an edited Jefferson always ends with a pockmarked Caligula. Atheism in power has always been totalitarian.
Christianity has shaped western civilization in many ways for the better. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, music, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. The liberties and human rights of secular governments, freedom, and rights of the individual, and so the criminal and justice system are a direct consequence of the Bible, and so the belief that man is accountable to God and that the law is the same regardless of social position, power and wealth. The education system, care of orphans and the elders, and hospitals goes back to the spread of monasteries, which were taking care of the general population. Science began to flourish in the western world, like Occam's razor in the twelfth century, and many science fathers, like Galilei, Newton, Volta, Ohm, Ampere, Kelvin, Faraday, etc. were all Christians. There are many other things, but this is just to name a few.
If you're talking about many of the first orphanages, all of our major Ivy League universities, in fact, all but one the first 123 colleges and universities in colonial America, almost every charitable organization i.e. the Red Cross, Nursing (Florence Nightingale), the abolition of slavery in both the Roman world and the European Slave Trade, ALL of the first sciences including the scientific method (as we know it today), Kepler, Newton, Pasteur, Boyle, Maxwell, Steno, Martel, etc; free enterprise and work ethic (ethics in general), wherever there are starving people, there are Christians feeding, wherever there are homeless, Christians are building shelters, in Rome during a plague Christians would not flee but tend to the sick and dying, the greatest contributions to music, literature, and art who brought them to music theory and even revolutionizing literature as we know it today are all contributed to Christians and Christianity.
"This is our culture's powerful emphasis on compassion, on helping the needy, and on alleviating distress even in distant places. If there is a huge famine or reports of genocide in Africa, most people in other cultures are unconcerned. As the Chinese proverb has it, 'the tears of strangers are only water.' But here in the West, we rush to help....Part of the reason why we do this is that of our Christian assumptions....The ancient Greeks and Romans did not believe this. They held a view quite commonly held in other cultures today: yes, that is a problem, but it is not our problem....However paradoxical it seems, people who believed most strongly in the next world did the most to improve the situation of people living in this one." -D'Souza
What good has the christian faith brought to us
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1452-what-good-has-the-christian-faith-brought-to-us
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t2844-the-bible-s-first-command
Claim: Many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion, and Christianity.
Reply: Not anyone that has claimed to be a Christian, is one. There is no better moral guide than the Bible. The Old Testament and Christ told us to love God and to love our neighbor.
Matthew 22:39
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
That informs us in one sentence of how we ought to live. If someone can propose a better/higher moral standard, which, if followed, would provide better good for humans to live together in society, I would like to hear it.
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:24)
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:1-2)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commands there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:9)
Deuteronomy 6.5
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Leviticus 19.18
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.
It is evident that if humanity would follow these commands, we would live in a better world.
The Bible contains the highest information/semantic content in world literature.
Genesis 1.1:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
That informs us in one short sentence of our origins.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
That informs us in one sentence of how we can be saved and receive eternal life.
Matthew 22:39
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
That informs us in one sentence of how we ought to live.
Now let us suppose that you would KNOW with absolute certainty that the whole Bible is a made-up story by some genius guy and that ontologically speaking, there is no God, but the material world is all there is and brought forward life and humans. Not only that, but you had the BEST arguments to back that up.
It would still be more reasonable to defend the Biblical worldview because it shapes humanity to the better. In contrast, without a creator, there can be no enforcing agency of moral good, and man basically could give a free go to his own inclinations, without fear of consequences besides eventually the direct consequences of his actions.
The only manifestation of atheism in state power is totalitarianism. No exceptions. For two centuries-- from 1789-- every atheist philosophy that has risen to power has brought hell to earth among the people under its boot. Atheist 'secular humanism' has one salient characteristic-- it never survives the rise of atheism. What begins with an edited Jefferson always ends with a pockmarked Caligula. Atheism in power has always been totalitarian.
Christianity has shaped western civilization in many ways for the better. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, music, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. The liberties and human rights of secular governments, freedom, and rights of the individual, and so the criminal and justice system are a direct consequence of the Bible, and so the belief that man is accountable to God and that the law is the same regardless of social position, power and wealth. The education system, care of orphans and the elders, and hospitals goes back to the spread of monasteries, which were taking care of the general population. Science began to flourish in the western world, like Occam's razor in the twelfth century, and many science fathers, like Galilei, Newton, Volta, Ohm, Ampere, Kelvin, Faraday, etc. were all Christians. There are many other things, but this is just to name a few.
If you're talking about many of the first orphanages, all of our major Ivy League universities, in fact, all but one the first 123 colleges and universities in colonial America, almost every charitable organization i.e. the Red Cross, Nursing (Florence Nightingale), the abolition of slavery in both the Roman world and the European Slave Trade, ALL of the first sciences including the scientific method (as we know it today), Kepler, Newton, Pasteur, Boyle, Maxwell, Steno, Martel, etc; free enterprise and work ethic (ethics in general), wherever there are starving people, there are Christians feeding, wherever there are homeless, Christians are building shelters, in Rome during a plague Christians would not flee but tend to the sick and dying, the greatest contributions to music, literature, and art who brought them to music theory and even revolutionizing literature as we know it today are all contributed to Christians and Christianity.
"This is our culture's powerful emphasis on compassion, on helping the needy, and on alleviating distress even in distant places. If there is a huge famine or reports of genocide in Africa, most people in other cultures are unconcerned. As the Chinese proverb has it, 'the tears of strangers are only water.' But here in the West, we rush to help....Part of the reason why we do this is that of our Christian assumptions....The ancient Greeks and Romans did not believe this. They held a view quite commonly held in other cultures today: yes, that is a problem, but it is not our problem....However paradoxical it seems, people who believed most strongly in the next world did the most to improve the situation of people living in this one." -D'Souza
What good has the christian faith brought to us
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1452-what-good-has-the-christian-faith-brought-to-us
Last edited by Admin on Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:52 am; edited 4 times in total
